The present invention generally relates to smartcards, and more particularly relates to dual interface smartcards having only one of its communication interfaces simultaneously available.
Smart cards are plastic cards having an embedded smartcard chip. A smartcard chip is an integrated microcontroller generally comprising a central processing unit, a random access memory, a ROM memory and an EEPROM memory. A dual interface smartcard is a smartcard provided with a contact and a contactless communication interfaces. The integrated microcontroller is connected to both communication interfaces to perform transactions. Such a smartcard can carry out a transaction through its contact interface when it is hosted in a smartcard reader. Such a smartcard can carry out a transaction through its contactless interface when a contactless reader is located in near-field area. Smartcards are widely used to store sensitive information such as cryptographic keys or software routines that implement valuable algorithms or know-how.
Both the contact and contactless interfaces can be inappropriate for specific applications. For instance, an access to secured computer networks can request a user authentication. An authentication through the contact interface of the smartcard requires connecting a smartcard reader to a terminal of the user. An authentication transaction through the smartcard contact interface can be carried out only when the smartcard is inserted inside the smartcard reader. Thus, the user has to leave the smartcard inside the smartcard reader as long as he wants to keep his access granted to the secured network. However, this smartcard can be used to have the user authenticated by further devices as well. For instance, the smartcard can be used to open security doors to/from restricted areas through its contactless interface. If a user wants to cross a door to enter or leave a restricted area, he has to remove his smartcard from the smartcard reader to authenticate and open the door.
Further developments have been made to allow the user to keep his smartcard in his pockets while he accesses the secured network, to allow such a user to move inside the room without disconnecting the smartcard from the user terminal and to avoid the necessity of connecting specific smartcard readers to the user terminal. A badge holder has notably been designed to enhance the communication range of the smartcard. Such a badge holder receives the smartcard and can communicate with the smartcard through a contact interface. The badge holder further comprises a Bluetooth interface (Bluetooth is defined in the IEEE 802.15 standards). Bluetooth communication system has the main advantage of being already widely integrated on most of the distributed computers and smart-phones. The contact interface and the Bluetooth interface of the badge holder are connected through a protocol translator or bridge. The protocol bridge establishes a communication between the smartcard using its contact interface (for instance through an ISO 7816 protocol) and the Bluetooth interface (through an UART interface for instance).
However, the use of such a badge holder still has some drawbacks. Indeed, the user may be unable to unlock a door and leave the room if a communication between the smartcard (using its contact interface) and the user terminal is active. Indeed, a dual interface smartcard is in most cases unable to perform a transaction on its contact interface concurrently with a transaction on its contactless interface. Thus, if a user leaves his desk and approaches a door he wishes to unlock, the badge holder hosted in his pocket will still be communicating with his terminal in vicinity. The transaction through the contact interface of the smartcard has to be ended first. Thus, the smartcard is unable to carry out a transaction with the door through its contactless interface while a communication through its contact interface is active. The user has to deliberately end the transaction between his terminal and the smartcard.
Thus, there is a need for an electronic circuit or a smartcard solving one of these drawbacks. The invention proposes a smartcard receiving device, comprising a contact interface, a remote communication interface, a protocol bridge and a communicating device detector. The contact interface is designed for communicating with the received smartcard. The remote communication interface designed for communicating with a first remote device. The protocol bridge is designed to establish a transaction with the received smartcard through the contact interface and to translate the data received according to the protocol of one of said interfaces into the protocol of the other of said interfaces. The communicating device detector is adapted to detect a second remote device communicating according to a remote communication protocol different from the communication protocol used by said remote communication interface. The protocol bridge interrupts the transaction with the received smartcard when the second remote device communicating according to said different remote communication protocol is detected.